Testing the resawing jig, BIG suprise....

[dbhost]

I have been working on building a found wood resawing jig akin to the one on Wood magazine's web video for turning Hurricane Ike deadfall into usable lumber. I decided to grab a smallish (8" diameter at the fat end) beech that had to be taken out due to storm damage. I felled the remainder of the tree the week after the storm, limbed it, at left it in my yard. Tonight the bottom 3' of that tree got run through the resaw jig. I learned some things tonight.

#1. Don't use screws that are too short.

#2. That funny green stuff on the outside means a BIG bonus on the inside....

Now this was not sitting in mud, but rather coated with leaves etc... more or less stickered up off the ground.
When I sliced that puppy open, you could see plain as day it had already spalted...

So I slabbed off 2 8/4 ~6" x 36" long boards, and now have them air drying in the shop....



This stuff is GORGEOUS! I figure I am gonna have to resaw the 8/4 into 2 @ ~ 4/4 so I have enough to face, and edge joint it down to 3/4", do a glue up of them to build up a set of 18" boards to build the display box for LOML's bouquet, garter, tiara etc...

[cgallery]

That is some gorgeous wood. It is beech? I guess I've only seen European beech (the stuff they make benches from). It is a very light color. Is that piece you've photographed spalted, or is that the normal color for beech you've sawed from your property.

Very neat wood.

[dbhost]

According to the Texas Forestry Service website, the tree I cut down was Beech... Unless i somehow mixed logs with the other small one that is who knows what, and yes it spalted. The photo doesn't show the green streaks in it, it looks a LOT like oxidized copper veins running through this stuff... I am very anxious to put this to use...

There were 5 trees on my property that came down due to Ike, 2 of them were about this size, I have actively tried to keep them separate, near where they fell so I can identify them, but the skinny trees got moved around by a roofing contractor... As best I can tell you this is Beech, or some other wood. Dunno, but it sure is beautiful stuff....

[chopnhack]

wow, great find!

[SARGE..g-47]

Beautiful.. it certainly doesn't look like any beech I have seen but.. this ole boy ain't gonna argue with the Texas Forestry Dept. You could have picked up the wrong one or maybe it has indeed oxidized from the moisture? Whatever it is.. it is very nice.

Is the surface rock hard like maple? Can you dent it with your thumb-nail. If so it probably is what they said it is? Again.. it really doesn't matter when all the votes are counted.

[dbhost]

This stuff was definately rock hard... Not soft at all.. I had to go real slow through the band saw with it...

[drumpriest]

Looks great! It's gonna take a while to dry, but should make some fantastic stuff.

[dbhost]

Looks great! It's gonna take a while to dry, but should make some fantastic stuff.

I've got a bunch more of this to do, then it's off to sticker it in the attic for a season....

[dbhost]

I'm NOT saying for sure that this is what it is, but this is what the bark and leaves look like, the site I grabbed this from (Virginia Tech) shows this to be Black Walnut. I don't know for sure, this was such a small tree I didn't pay much attention to what it was when the limbs came off...

[ragswl4]

Beautiful wood. Don't forget to seal the ends so it doesn't split on ya. Nice find.

[dbhost]

You betcha, I have a can of old green paint in the shop that just needs to be shaken up real good and slopped on... I should have done it before going through the band saw...